The Whys Guy's tribute to Where the Wild Things Are author Maurice Sendak.

In the last week, many of us lost one the cultural architects of our adolescence in Adam Yauch, and today we lost a man who laid the foundations for our childhood dreams, Maurice Sendak.

That's why I had cake this morning.

From In The Night Kitchen to The Sign on Rosie's Door to Where the Wild Things Are to later work like We Are All in the Dumps With Jack & Guy, Sendak never underestimated his audience; he never sold kids out or treated them like dullards. Instead of relying on absurdity and bright colors to keep kids' attention, he trafficked in poetry with a hint of darkness. Perhaps because he was never a father, he never felt that stifling urge to protect children from the world, to tell them that it was all okay. He let them face nightmares and fear head on. His books acknowledged that you could be frightened and fascinated and find beauty and humor in something all at the same time. It's an important lesson that is often hard for parents to teach themselves, and in that way, certainly for me as a dad, the work of Sendak has been invaluable.

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But instead of my own saccharine recollections and no-fun parental observations, I thought I'd go to the horse's mouth, so to speak, and get my kids, Noah, 5, and Josie, 3, to weigh in on their two favorite Sendak books, Where the Wild Things Are and In The Night Kitchen.

Me: Which of these two books do you like better?

Noah:Where the Wild Things Are because it's spooookie...

Josie: Mickey! [She means In The Night Kitchen.]

Me: Why, baby girl?

Josie: [Looking at her brother and cracking up] Because you see his PEEE-nis!

Noah: Daddy, Josie said penis at the lunch table.

Me: Yes, but she's right, you can see his penis in the book. If she says "penis" in the context of the book we're discussing, I think it's okay... I think.

Josie: PEEEENIS!!! [Breaks into peals of laughter and accidentally spits her lunch all over the place]

Me: [Trying to ignore her and turning to Noah.] Okay, beyond the spookiness of Wild Things, what specific things do you like in it?

Noah: The boat, the Wild Things, Max's wolf suit, the forest that grows in his room....

Josie: [whispering loudly] Say penis!

Me: [still trying to ignore her] Go on Noah, what would you do if a forest grew in your room?

Noah: I'm not going to say penis, Josie, and you're going to get in trouble. If a forest grew in my room, I would want it to be a Lego forest and I'd pluck the bricks off the trees and start building with them.

Me: Nice. Is Wild Things ever so spooky that you don't want to read it?

Noah: No, because it makes me think I could dress up as a monster fighting explorer and go fight monsters...

Josie:... and penises!

Me: [slapping forehead and getting annoyed] Ugh, really, Jos? You think it would be a better, more poetic, story if Max sailed off to an enchanted island to fight penises?

Josie: Hmmmm, I like in the book when the boy, uh, in the plane, falls, and uh...... [looking at her brother who I see now is silently egging her on].... BUTT! Mickey has a BUTT!

[Both children laugh hysterically.]

Me: Great, thanks guys, you really proved my point about Sendak not underestimating his audience.

Josie: [so whacked out on her own comedic stylings that she looks directly at me and whispers] Say penis!

Me: That's it, everybody upstairs for quiet time.

So thank you, Maurice Sendak, for helping our kids get comfortable in the dark, thank you for the poetry and lyricism that helped me and my children fall asleep at night, thanks for being an amazing illustrator who could fully realize the wild worlds you imagined, and last, but not least, thank you for drawing hilarious penises. You will be missed.